In the Sunday New York Times, Amy Chozick gives Talk of the Sound a nice mention in her profile of the 31-year old daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: Chelsea Clinton, Living Up to the Family Name.
Next year, when Mrs. Clinton has said she will leave her post, it will be the first time in Ms. Clinton’s life that neither of her parents is in public office. That thought has some Democrats excited by the prospect of a Candidate Chelsea Clinton.
In October, Talk of the Sound, a blog in New Rochelle, N.Y., reported that Ms. Clinton sought to run for the Congressional seat held by Representative Nita M. Lowey. A spokesman said Ms. Clinton had no interest in running for office, but that is a denial that people balance against her family history. (Ms. Lowey has indicated that she plans to run again in 2012.)
“Could the Democratic Party use someone like Chelsea Clinton?” asked Mr. Sheinkopf, the Democratic consultant. “She’s smart, she’s charming, and she’s got the last name Clinton.”
As usual, when reporting on my work, The New York Times gets it wrong. We did not report that she sought to run for the Congressional seat held by Representative Nita M. Lowey.
We reported that during discussions over redistricting in New York State, Democrats in Albany discussed the idea of finding an open seat for Chelsea Clinton, that the 18th Congressional district was among those seats discussed among others, and that she was approached about the idea of running for Congress and was actively considering it. We then made the case as to why the 18th would make sense, especially given speculation that Rep. Nita Lowey was considering retirement from Congress.
That said we are hardly going to complain and appreciate Amy Chozick crediting our reporting. Chozick makes the exactly correct point that a denial by the Clinton camp is “a denial that people balance against her family history”.
Clinton spokesperson Matt McKenna called me after the story ran to strongly deny that Clinton was considering a run for Congress; Lowey spokesperson Matthew Dennis denied that Lowey was retiring before the 2012 election.
To reiterate, our information was that New York State Democrats went to her with the idea, not that she was seeking to run, and that there was no specific seat “offered” to Chelsea Clinton, just the idea of finding an open seat for her where she would be a sure winner.
It may be that Chelsea Clinton was just being polite to those who approached her or it may be that she is, in fact, considering a run.
While the Clinton and Lowey people went into hyperdrive to deny the report, it is worth noting that the “political consultant” quoted in the New York Times, Hank Sheinkopf, worked on President Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign. In response to our report, Jay Jacobs, the Chairman of the New York State Democratic Party said he had not heard about Chelsea running for Congress but added “She certainly has a star quality to her. She would be a formidable candidate. She’s bright, articulate, on top of the issues. It would be exciting…” That sure doesn’t sound like the head of the State party closing the door on a Chelsea Clinton run for Congress.